Cincunri Sakia: Juni 2023

Jumat, 30 Juni 2023

France shooting: Macron accuses rioters of exploiting teen killed by police - BBC

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the media after a crisis meeting of French ministers

By Sam Hancock

BBC News

Emmanuel Macron has accused protesters of exploiting the death of a teenager shot by police at point-blank range.

At a crisis meeting, France's president said more officers would be deployed to contain the violence, but stopped short of declaring a state of emergency.

He urged parents to keep rioting children at home and social media platforms to remove certain content.

France has been rocked by three nights of unrest after Nahel M, 17, was killed as he drove away from a traffic stop.

More than 915 arrests were made on Thursday night alone, officials said, and the government announced it would deploy 45,000 police officers in a bid to contain further violence.

Mr Macron said that about a third of those arrested for rioting were "young, or very young", with Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin later clarifying that some were as young as 13.

Imploring parents to take action, he said it was their "responsibility" to keep any child intending to protest "at home".

Mr Macron condemned the violence of the last three days "with the greatest firmness" and said Nahel's death had been used to justify acts of violence - calling it an "unacceptable exploitation of the adolescent's death".

He also urged social media companies such as TikTok and Snapchat to take down "the most sensitive types of content" that had been posted, and supply authorities with the names of people using their services to organise violence.

A spokesperson for Snapchat said it had a "zero tolerance" for content that promoted violence and hatred, and would continue to monitor the situation closely.

From Lille and Roubaix in the north to Marseille in the south, shops were ransacked across France on Thursday night, streets were badly damaged and cars set on fire. The interior ministry said there had been more than 3,880 fires on public roads, compared with 2,391 on Wednesday.

Police in Marseille, France's second-largest city, had already arrested 80 people by Friday evening. It followed more clashes between protesters and riot police.

Public transport halted early in some places and curfews were enforced, with a nationwide curb on buses and trams running from 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

View of a street with cars burnt during night clashes between protesters and police at the Alma district in Roubaix, northern France

Some public events have also been cancelled, including two concerts by French pop star Mylène Farmer, due to take place at the Stade de France just outside Paris on Friday and Saturday night.

France's capital has been at the heart of the unrest because Nahel lived in Nanterre, a north-west Parisian suburb, and was killed there just after 09:00 on Tuesday.

He was shot after refusing to stop for a traffic check and died after emergency services attended the scene. A video, shared online in the hours following Nahel's death, showed two police officers trying to stop the vehicle and one pointing his weapon at the driver.

The officer who fired the fatal shot has since been charged with voluntary homicide and apologised to the family. His lawyer said he is devastated.

Nahel's death has reignited debate around the state of French policing, including a controversial 2017 firearms law which allows officers to shoot when a driver ignores an order to stop.

More widely, it has led to questions of racism in the force. The UN's human rights office said the unrest was a chance for France "to address deep issues of racism in law enforcement".

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A spokeswoman pointed to a recent report by the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination, which last December expressed concern at aspects of French policing, including what the report suggested was the disproportionate use of identity checks and imposition of fines on specific ethnic groups.

Nahel's mother, Mounia, made her own accusations, saying the officer who shot her son "didn't have to kill" him.

"He saw the face of an Arab, of a little kid, he wanted to take his life," she told broadcaster France 5. Nahel was of Algerian descent.

On Thursday, Mounia led a largely peaceful march of more than 6,000 people in Nanterre. Wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "Justice pour Nahel" ("Justice for Nahel"), she said she hoped the tribute would be an opportunity for the community in and around Paris to remember her only child.

By late afternoon, the march had descended into violence, sparking the third night of unrest. Police fired tear gas at masked protesters who set fire to various objects, with people thought to have been out on the streets until the early hours of Friday morning.

Nahel's funeral is due to be held in Nanterre on Saturday morning.

In the UK, travellers have been warned to expect disruptions when trying to reach France over the weekend. The Foreign Office told people to "monitor the media, avoid protests, check the latest advice with operators when travelling and follow the advice of the authorities".

Map showing where riots have taken place across France

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Kamis, 29 Juni 2023

France shooting: Macron's crisis-in-waiting as riots spread - BBC

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By Hugh Schofield

BBC News, Paris

The outbreak of rioting in France is the stuff of bad dreams for President Emmanuel Macron.

To the list of other civil order crises he has had to surmount - terrorism, yellow-vests, left-wing protests over pensions - can now be added that persistent French crisis-in-waiting which is the banlieue - or suburb.

Sporadically over the last 18 years there have been outbreaks of rioting in the suburban cités or tenements, whose once-immigrant populations are now often third- or fourth- generation French.

Typically triggered by the accidental death or injury of a young male resident - an accident blamed on the police - they tended not to last more than a night or two.

Not since 2005 has there been a protracted trauma of the kind that now threatens.

Back then, as now, troubled banlieues went up in flames one by one across the country, as one suburb after another copycatted what had gone before.

Then as now, the main targets (beyond the easy prey of parked cars) were town halls, police stations and schools - any building essentially that might be flying a French flag.

A police officer stands in front of the burnt facade of the Hotel du ville in Garges-les-Gonesse, north of Paris on June 29, 2023,

And back then the rallying cries of protesters were social neglect, racial discrimination and police brutality. Again today, slogans that are little changed.

Yet in many ways things have changed.

Look for example at the billions of euros being spent on the Grand Paris Express project, which is putting new metro and tram connections across the suburbs and combating the social isolation that was said to be one of the main banlieue grievances.

Look at the spanking new public buildings in Paris suburbs like Nanterre or Massy. Neglect there is not a word that comes to mind.

Look at the growing numbers of people ofAfrican or Maghrebi origin who are now serving in the police - many more than were visible in 2005. Or at the efforts to get more people from the banlieues into elite schools and universities.

And look at how public language has changed. Old-fashioned bigotry towards minorities, which might have enjoyed an indulgent wink two or three decades ago, will invite condemnation today, if not prosecution.

The point is that France is changing, like everywhere else is.

But despite that, everyone in France also knows that there is still - neglected but festering - this ancient scar which is the problem of the banlieues.

French riot police react amid clashes with protesters during a march in tribute to Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager killed by a French police officer during a traffic stop, in Nanterre

It is a scar born of colonialism, arrogance, long-gone wars and nurtured hatreds - to which might be added drugs, crime and religion. And it is not about to disappear.

President Emmanuel Macron had fervently been praying that the banlieue phenomenon would not be added to his litany of burdens, but his wish has not been granted.

Fears in Paris suburb after police killing of teen

This evening the suburbs will be swamped with police officers, in the hope that mass deployment will provide the shock that can bring the riots to an end.

But President Macron knows his history.

He knows that the 2005 riots lasted three weeks and only ended after the declaration of a state of emergency, with curfews and house arrests.

We are not there yet, but we could be.

Selasa, 27 Juni 2023

Kramatorsk: Russian missile strike hits restaurants in Ukrainian city - BBC

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By Mayeni Jones & James Gregory

in Kyiv and London

Russian missiles have hit the centre of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, killing four people and injuring many more, Ukrainian officials say.

A restaurant and shopping area were hit in Tuesday's strike on the city, which is under Ukrainian control but close to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

People may be trapped under the rubble and a rescue operation is under way.

An eyewitness told the BBC he saw "dead people, people screaming, people crying, huge chaos".

A 17-year-old girl is reported to be among those who were killed in the attack, which happened at around 19:30 local time (16:30 GMT).

There were also apartment buildings at the epicentre of the explosion, officials said.

Social media and drone footage from the scene show significant damage to the buildings, some of which have been reduced to rubble.

Belgian freelance journalist Arnaud De Decker told BBC Newshour he was at the popular Ria Lounge restaurant just minutes before it was hit.

"There's still people underneath the rubble because it's a big restaurant," he said.

"Now I can hear people screaming underneath the rubble as rescuers are trying to save them."

He estimated up to 80 staff members and customers were on the restaurant premises at the time of the strike, so feared the casualty number could be "severe".

Officials say at least 40 people were injured, including an eight-month-old baby and three foreigners.

A rescue operation is currently under way in the city centre, with security agencies assisting emergency services at the scene and evacuating victims.

Local authorities say the area had a high concentration of civilians when the missiles hit.

"This is the city centre. These were public eating places crowded with civilians," regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television.

Mr De Decker described the restaurant as a local "gathering hub" that was also popular with soldiers, journalists and volunteers.

Russian forces also targeted a nearby village, Kramatorsk city council said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack proved to Ukraine and the world that Russia deserved "only defeat and a tribunal, just and lawful courts against all Russian murderers and terrorists".

The White House condemned Russia for its "brutal strikes" on Ukraine.

Kramatorsk has often been targeted by missiles since the start of the invasion in February 2022.

The city of 150,000 people is one of the largest still under Ukrainian control in the besieged east. It lies about 30km (18 miles) from the frontline.

In April of last year more than 60 people died in Kramatorsk following a missile strike on the city's railway station.

It is also exactly a year to the day since a shopping centre in the city of Kremenchuk was hit by Russian shelling, killing at least 18 people.

This latest attack comes as Mr Zelensky said Ukraine's counter-offensive was advancing on all fronts.

A map showing the areas of eastern Ukraine held by Russian and Ukrainian forces